Halloween film specials
All Hallows' Eve isn't just boom time for fancy-dress merchants and pumpkin growers; more than ever, Halloween means horror and you're spoiled for choice this year. So what will it be? Trick, treat, or horrifically gory splatterfest? Surgical horror seems to be where it's at right now. Many of the seasonal horror festivals around the country feature previews of Excision (in which an unstable teen tests out her self-taught surgical skills) and American Mary (medical student finds gory sideline on the fetish circuit). Ben "Kill List" Wheatley's latest, Sightseers is also doing the rounds and is a very British psycho-camping trip.
Wales's well-stocked national horror festival, Abertoir (Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 6-11 Nov) has special guests Steven "Mum And Dad" Sheil, introducing his new Indonesia-set horror, and British giallo queen Catriona MacColl, with Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. Sheffield's Celluloid Screams (Showroom, Sat & Sun), meanwhile, introduces rising Brazilian gore merchant Dennison Ramalho.
If one night is all you can spare, or all you dare, there are plenty of ways to fill it. Leaders in the field Frightfest hold all-nighters in London (Sat), Bristol, Cambridge, Sunderland and Newcastle (3 Nov). Alongside Excision they all feature fresh meat like The Tall Man, a child-abduction horror starring Jessica Biel, and bonkers Aussie shark movie Bait. Derby's Dead & Breakfast (QUAD, Sat) goes old school with the likes of Nightmare On Elm Street and Army Of Darkness. The Jameson's Cult Film Club has a special free screening of Coppola's Dracula on Wednesday in Newcastle upon Tyne (tickets via Facebook). The event, and even the location, is shrouded in mystery but expect organ music, undead special guests, and garlic-heavy snacks.
The well-established Rooftop Film Club has gentler fare for its Halloween Screamings, including Shaun Of The Dead and Ghostbusters at Hackney's Round Chapel (Tue & Wed) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Netil House (Sun) with special guest Patricia "Magenta" Quinn. Ealing's St Barnabas Church has Nosferatu with organ accompaniment (Wed). The BFI Southbank has Mark Gatiss on Euro-horror (Sun), plus 1970s TV vampires (Wed). Or, if you just want a scary movie, you can't go far wrong with the re-releases of Kubrick's classic The Shining or good ol' slasher Halloween.
Step Into The Dark London
As the title suggests, the Barbican is embracing the longer nights (and promoting the refurbishment of two of its cinemas) with a five-pronged season exploring "dystopia, the sublime and the surreal". The big draw is a seven deadly sins season curated by artists such as Jake & Dinos Chapman, Vivienne Westwood and Richard Ayoade. Andrea Arnold chooses Carrie to represent "wrath", for example, while Nick Broomfield goes for the sensuous Woman Of The Dunes for "sloth". The future looks bright, and dark.
Barbican Screen, EC2, Fri to 9 Dec
Secret Cinema London
Last time around, they put 25,000 punters in boilersuits, gave them "missions" and let them loose in a mock spaceship-cum-sci-fi-labyrinth full of movie props and special effects scenarios that were far more entertaining than the film itself – Ridley Scott's Prometheus, back when it was eagerly anticipated. This time … as ever, who knows? However, the accompanying announcement from "The State of Oak Hampton" warns that "a storm is coming", and promises to establish a meteorological station in central London in order "to trace the skies and bring daily reports to our contenders and offenders." Huh? On firmer ground, the Secret empire continues to expand. We're promised an art gallery, sorry, a "four-dimensional immersive space", plus a Secret Hotel located on site, where you can book a room for the night, and that's just the stuff they're telling us about.
Secret venue, Wed to 2 Dec
UK Jewish Film Festival Nationwide
The ever-expanding reach and scale of this festival is a reflection of just how far Jewish culture has spread (it takes place in London, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester), and how much of it there is. With over 70 films, the programme is large enough to divide into respectable sections: Jewish comedy, documentaries, history, identity, French-Jewish movies (such as Woody Allen-esque romcom Paris Manhattan) and so on, all with a healthy female contingent. Unsurprisingly, engagement with other cultures is an overarching theme. Eran Riklis's road-buddy movie Zaytoun, for example, throws together a Palestinian refugee and a shot-down Israeli pilot played by Stephen Dorff.
Various venues, Thu to 18 Nov
Leeds Film Festival
Kicking yourself for missing the London Film Festival? Well this is a decent substitute. It's the UK's next biggest film festival (over 160 films), and includes many of the same must-see films, including Ben Affleck's 1970s Oscar contender Argo, Jake Schreier's unlikely buddy movie Robot & Frank, and Cannes-winners such as Michael Haneke's Amour. There are also some uniquely Leeds elements, including regular horror strand Fanomenon; respectable documentary and short film sections; retrospectives of Andrei Konchalovsky and Kinuyo Tanaka; plus free films and Kubrick in the Town Hall.
Various venues, Thu to 18 Nov
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/27/this-weeks-new-film-events
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